Sheryl Swoopes reveals she apologized to Caitlin Clark for inaccurate claims

Former WNBA star and women’s basketball commentator Sheryl Swoopes kicked up a media firestorm two weeks ago when she went on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast and made some inaccurate comments about Iowa star Caitlin Clark as she pursued the NCAA career scoring record.

Among the inaccuracies were claims that Clark had already used a COVID-19 extra year of eligibility and thus was chasing Kelsey Plum‘s scoring record using “extra” games.

She also suggested Clark was a 25-year-old playing against 20-year-olds and claimed Clark was averaging 40 shot attempts per game.

The comments drew immediate backlash, because they essentially called into question the legitimacy of Clark’s record-breaking attempt. Clark would go on to break the record shortly after Swoopes’ comments.

But Swoopes apparently thought better of her claims after some reflection and had a heart-to-heart with Clark.

A call was organized via LSU star Angel Reese.

“Honestly a couple of weeks ago I reached out to Angel and had a really good conversation with Angel over the phone and sent a message to Caitlin,” Swoopes said Sunday on a broadcast of the Baylor–Texas Tech game. “And she responded. She and I went back and forth. I won’t share what she said, I’ll leave that to her if she wants to share.”

Swoopes, though, admitted some fault.

“But I will say what I said to her was I made a mistake in saying it was your fifth year when it is your fourth,” Swoopes said. “Have nothing but respect for what she has done for the game. And, you know, if she wants to share what her response was and how that conversation went I’ll leave that to her. But it was a really good conversation.”

Clark not only broke the scoring record, she did so in historic fashion, setting the Iowa single-game scoring mark with 49 points.

Swoopes tipped her cap on the broadcast on Sunday, as a graphic of the elite scorers Clark passed flashed on the screen.

“Absolutely. When you look at this list, though, there is some talent on this list,” Swoopes said. “But for sure Caitlin Clark, what she, not only what she did in that game in breaking the record, what she continues to do every single day for women’s basketball is to be commended and congratulations to her on setting that new record.”